This disclosure pertains to polymeric automotive bed liners and the like. The present disclosure pertains to polymeric bed liners that are composed of a catalyst free 100% aliphatic polyurea material system. The present disclosure also pertains to methods for applying 100% aliphatic polyurea material systems to suitable surfaces. The present disclosure also pertains to plural component 100% aliphatic polyurea systems capable of use as an exterior automotive finish.
Multi-component polyurea spray elastomer technology has been employed in the coatings and lining industry. Heretofore such spray coatings have employed aromatic polyurea compounds and components in order to ensure good application performance. Aromatic polyurea spray systems are not without challenges though. Aromatic spray elastomer systems present problems in applications that encounter prolonged or elevated UV exposure and/or elevated humidity conditions. Such systems exhibit color instability and chalking upon prolonged exposure to sunlight and particularly to UV radiation. Furthermore, the application of aromatic polyurea material systems is problematic in high speed assembly processes for a variety of reasons including, but not limited to challenges inherent in the aromatic chemistries and specifics of the reaction process of the various aromatic polyurea components including gel time, cure rate and mix ratio tolerance.
Various alternatives have been proposed to address and/or minimize the deleterious effects from UV exposure and the like. One set of alternatives has been to include small amounts of aliphatic polyureas/polyurethanes in order to produce hybrid systems in an effort to address issues such as color stability and chalking. However, these systems are not generally suitable for Class A automotive surfaces.
Various aromatic-based polyurea systems, as well as polyurethane/polyurea hybrid systems and polyurethane systems have been used in after-market automotive bedliner type applications. While these systems do perform with acceptable results for the after market, they are not to the standards required of OEM/in-plant applications.